


Friday One Word Fic Challenge: "Leaves"

by koalathebear



Category: Terra Nova (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 14:20:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/320842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set just after the Pilot episode.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friday One Word Fic Challenge: "Leaves"

"Do you need a hand with that?" A voice asked unexpectedly.

Maddy glanced up in surprise.

"Oh - hi ..." she said awkwardly, wondering why it was the case that she always felt and sounded like a dork when Mark Reynolds was around.

"Hi," he said with a quick smile. He glanced at the rake in her hand

"No I'm fine, thanks .." she told him. "No help needed."

There was a long silence.

"Thanks again for coming by last night," she told him abruptly.

"No problem," he replied. "Also, you already thanked me last night," he reminded her. They hadn't spoken that much despite the fact that he had been at her house for several hours until her parents and Josh had finally returned home. He'd played dinosaur on the ground while a giggling Zoe rode around on his back as he roared and made fake dinosaur sounds. Then he had sat and listened intently as Maddy had read stories to her younger sister until she had fallen asleep. By the time they had both finally plucked up the courage to attempt to make conversation over Zoe's slumbering head, the front door had opened and the rest of the Shannon family had returned.

"Well yeah ... I was kind of freaked out that _both_ my parents decided to take off like that."

"Understandable that you were worried," he agreed. "I'm glad your parents and your brother are ok... So are you a gardener?" he asked her, gesturing at the rake on the ground that she was using to gather **leaves**.

"Umm no .. not really ... just tidying up for mom," Maddy explained. "She told me to rake up the leaves - Josh is going to help dad with the painting and I volunteered with the garden. It's interesting actually, angiosperms spread during the Cretaceous period but they won't become predominant until the Campanian stage near the end of the epoch. Their evolution was aided by bees coming into existence ... angiosperms and insects are an excellent good example of coevolution ... The first representatives of many leafy trees, including figs, planes and magnolias, appeared in the Cretaceous ..." Maddy's voice trailed off as she realised that she was babbling again. She bit her lip and grimaced at herself. Mark seemed amused rather than bored.

"So you're interested in botany as well as dinosaurs?" he asked her curiously.

"Actually I guess I'm interested in everything," she told him bluntly. That made him smile.

"You've come to the right place. The oceans and seas here are filled with marine reptiles that will be extinct in the future. As well as your angiosperms, the Cretaceous has new groups of mammals and birds coming into being - lots for you to learn about."

"I know!" Maddy said enthusiastically. "There's so much to see and study here, although the Cretaceous - at least in our timeline, does end with one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth history," Maddy's voice trailed off again as she decided that talking about extinction events didn't make for light conversation.

"Does that bother you?" Mark asked her, his gaze not moving from her animated face.

Maddy shook her head and bent down to pick up a large leaf. "See this? It's a very early version of the plant family that we know as the oak ... " Mark took the leaf from her and stared down at its pattern which was unfamiliar to him. "In 2149, I would never had had a chance to see a real oak leaf and here I am, back where it all began ... " She forgot her nervousness for a while. "We don't know for sure that the Cretaceous will undergo an extinction event in this timeline ... and even if it does - at least we will have a chance at life here whereas we had no hope left in 2149."

Their eyes met for a long moment and Mark cleared his throat. "I'd better be heading back to barracks. I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Maddy asked, in perplexity.

"Lieutenant Washington's survival classes - I'm on the security detail posted to your group," he explained.

"Oh," Maddy said. "Right," she nodded.

Mark looked down at the leaf in his hand. "Mind if I keep this?" he asked her.

"Of course not," she told him.

She waved as he walked off, grimacing as she fumbled with the rake and seeing the smile of amusement that he struggled to suppress. She smiled despite herself as she recalled the warm expression in Mark's steady blue eyes. This world was filled with so many possibilities and the end of the world was still millions of years away ...

**end**


End file.
